# Adrian Diaconu

Adrian Diaconu (born 9 June 1978) is a Romanian former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2011 and is now teaching at the University of Minnesota. He held the WBC light-heavyweight title from 2008 to 2009. As an amateur he won a silver medal in the middleweight division at the 1999 World Championships and bronze in the light-middleweight division at the 1997 World Championships. Diaconu was born in Ploieşti, Romania, but fought out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada for almost his entire professional career.

## Amateur career

Diaconu represented Romania at the 2000 Olympics in the middleweight division.
Olympic results:
* Defeated Abdelhani Kenzi (Algeria) 19-9
* Defeated Jitender Kumar (India) 12-3
* Lost to Jorge Gutiérrez (Cuba) KO 1

## Professional career

Following the Olympics, Diaconu made his professional debut in 2001 and competed exclusively as a light-heavyweight. He went on to claim his first regional championship in June 2005, winning the Canadian title with a fifth-round knockout of Conal MacPhee. In December 2005, Diaconu won the WBC International title after knocking out Darrin Humphrey. This was followed up with a knockout against Max Heyman to win the vacant WBA–NABA and TAB titles. Diaconu vacated his Canadian title to face Rico Hoye in an eliminator bout for the WBC world title. He was successful, dominating Hoye until a stoppage in the third round. With the win, Diaconu became the mandatory challenger for then-WBC world champion Chad Dawson.
In October 2007, world cruiserweight champion David Haye described Diaconu as "the future of the light-heavyweight division."
On 19 April 2008, Diaconu won the vacant WBC interim title with a twelve-round unanimous decision over Chris Henry in Romania; the interim title being at stake to allow full titleholder Chad Dawson to make an optional defense after a previous injury-produced delay to the mandated bout. In July 2008, Diaconu was elevated to full champion status after Dawson vacated the title to avoid having to make the mandatory defense.
Diaconu suffered his first career defeat and lost the WBC world title to Jean Pascal on 19 June 2009, and would go on to lose a rematch on 11 December 2009. Diaconu's final professional fight took place on 21 May 2011 against former champion Chad Dawson, who defeated Diaconu by a unanimous decision after twelve rounds. A year later, Diaconu announced his retirement from boxing, stating that he felt a lack of support from his promoters, Interbox, to organize significant fights for him.

## Professional boxing record

| 30 fights | 27 wins | 3 losses |
| By knockout | 15 | 0 |
| By decision | 12 | 3 |
| No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
| 30 | Loss | 27–3 | Chad Dawson | UD | 12 | 21 May 2011 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 29 | Win | 27–2 | Omar Sheika | UD | 10 | 15 Oct 2010 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 28 | Loss | 26–2 | Jean Pascal | UD | 12 | 11 Dec 2009 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | For WBC light-heavyweight title |
| 27 | Loss | 26–1 | Jean Pascal | UD | 12 | 19 May 2009 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Lost WBC light-heavyweight title |
| 26 | Win | 26–0 | David Whittom | UD | 8 | 4 Apr 2009 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 25 | Win | 25–0 | Chris Henry | UD | 12 | 19 Apr 2008 | Polyvalent Hall, Bucharest, Romania | Won WBC interim light-heavyweight title |
| 24 | Win | 24–0 | Rico Hoye | TKO | 3 (12), 0:32 | 9 May 2007 | Studio Mel's, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 23 | Win | 23–0 | Orlando Rivera | UD | 10 | 15 Sep 2006 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 22 | Win | 22–0 | Andre Thysse | UD | 12 | 16 May 2006 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Retained WBC International light-heavyweight title |
| 21 | Win | 21–0 | Max Heyman | KO | 4 (12), 3:00 | 24 Mar 2006 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Won vacant WBA–NABA and TAB light-heavyweight titles |
| 20 | Win | 20–0 | Darrin Humphrey | TKO | 11 (12), 2:56 | 2 Dec 2005 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Won vacant WBC International light-heavyweight title |
| 19 | Win | 19–0 | Conal MacPhee | TKO | 2 (10), 2:00 | 16 Sep 2005 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Retained Canada light-heavyweight title |
| 18 | Win | 18–0 | Conal MacPhee | TKO | 5 (10), 3:00 | 3 May 2005 | Maurice Richard Arena, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Won vacant Canada light-heavyweight title |
| 17 | Win | 17–0 | James Crawford | TKO | 1 (8) | 12 Apr 2005 | Galaţi, Romania | |
| 16 | Win | 16–0 | Jesse Sanders | TKO | 4 (6), 3:00 | 18 Mar 2005 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 15 | Win | 15–0 | Roberto Coelho | UD | 10 | 20 Mar 2004 | Montreal Casino, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 14 | Win | 14–0 | Rico Cason | TKO | 3 (8), 2:45 | 20 Dec 2003 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 13 | Win | 13–0 | Tiwon Taylor | KO | 2 (8), 1:14 | 22 Nov 2003 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Ronald Cobbs | TKO | 3 (6) | 17 May 2003 | Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US | |
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Isidore Janvier | UD | 8 | 5 Apr 2003 | Arena Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Ron Johnson | KO | 1 (8), 1:44 | 28 Feb 2003 | Aréna Léonard-Grondin, Granby, Quebec, Canada | |
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Shaun Creegan | UD | 8 | 14 Dec 2002 | Armory, Dorchester, Massachusetts, US | |
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Kenny Bowman | MD | 6 | 6 Sep 2002 | Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Ganny Dovidovas | KO | 3 (8) | 31 May 2002 | Polyvalent Hall, Bucharest, Romania | |
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Melroy Corbin | UD | 6 | 26 Apr 2002 | Hershey Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | |
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | Francis Doiron | KO | 1 (6), 1:40 | 30 Nov 2001 | Molson Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | Claudio Ortiz | UD | 4 | 20 Jul 2001 | Stade L.P. Gaucher, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada | |
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Eric Olds | UD | 4 | 10 Jul 2001 | Molson Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | |
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Todd Black | KO | 1 (4), 0:36 | 5 Jun 2001 | Pavillon de la Jeunesse, Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada | |
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Mark Newton | TKO | 1 (4), 2:34 | 2 Mar 2001 | Molson Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Professional debut |